Friday, April 23, 2010 3:43:33 AMjonn_daniel (and everyone else involved in the debate), i'm a chinese australian living in sydney, and i speak mandarin; the way i've always understood it (and everyone who's explained it to me has understood it) is that the 'language' is in fact chinese. so, yes, there is such a language. mandarin, cantonese, hakka and hokkien (which my family is/speaks) are all dialects of chinese, not mandarin, which is itself a dialect (or group of dialects, according to wikipedia...)

hakka, as with most dialect "names", refer to both the people and the dialect they speak. hakka people speak hakka. and you'll hardly ever see someone saying "oh, i speak a DIALECT of chinese known as [whatever]." their dialect is their 'language', even though it may not be the most accurate term.

and yeah, the lady's definitely speaking mandarin. i doubt what she's saying is what the subtitles are saying though, it doesn't sound like it.

Thursday, April 22, 2010 9:43:34 AMand Hakka, is a type of person as well. They speak a different dialect of mandarin, but the Hakka people actually speak Mandarin. go back to school on the subject if you are so enlightened by it.

I am not going to call you dumb, because you are probably not dumb, but you are very ignorant because you are talking about something you (obviously) know nothing about. They actually DO speak Taiwanese in Taiwan, and there is no such language called "Chinese" chinese is in reference to a type of person, like American; you don't speak American do you? In China they speak many different dialects of Mandarin, some speak Cantonese, and Taiwanese too. anyway, next time you say something you THINK you know, Google it first. Don't make yourself look stupid just cause you're ignorant.

Thursday, April 22, 2010 9:27:22 AMWell it is Chinese, but if this is from Taiwan then technically it's Mandarin, the main language spoken there. (Although it could be Taiwanese or Hakka but sounds more like Mandarin)